Game industry recruiters form trade group to protect workers

Workers of the digital world, unite! A new trade group formed by recruiters …

An alliance of the video game industry's leading recruitment firms has announced the formation of a new trade group called Professional Electronic Entertainment Recruiters (PEER). PEER is made up of eight charter members: Digital Artist Management, Entertainment Technology Source, Exclaim Recruiting Agency, GameRecruiter.com, International Search Partners, Mary-Margaret.com, Premier Search and Prime Candidate Inc. The goal of PEER is to establish ethical work standards for the industry.

The gaming industry has, for nearly three decades now, been primarily a domain of eager young men, willing to work long hours for the chance to be behind the scenes at their favorite hobby. However, like the movie and television industries before it, the gaming world is growing up. Workers are now entering their 30s, 40s and even 50s, and finding that family responsibilities and other interests are now at odds with the job they once loved.

The sad tale of ea_spouse caused a furor when it was published in 2004, but for those of us who used to work for Electronic Arts (including myself) it was no big surprise, and if anything, understated the pervasiveness of the problem. Companies such as EA can get away with treating their workforce badly because there is a never-ending supply of eager young replacements who are willing to fill the positions of any malcontents.

However, the tide is starting to turn. Recently EA agreed to pay US$15.6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that charged the company with forcing employees to work overtime without compensation. At least two other lawsuits are pending against EA, and the publishing giant is by no means the only guilty company. Clearly, a solution was needed, and that's where PEER comes in.

I talked to David Musgrove, the first president of PEER, today and we had a long and insightful chat into the nature of the recruitment process, the need for ethical standards in the industry (both for employers and the recruiting companies that help find them new employees), and the possible fate of the industry itself. He explained why he felt the formation of PEER was necessary:

"The creation of PEER was a result of a natural evolution in a growing industry. PEER needed to be formed to set the standard for professionalism in recruiting and placement in an industry where you can't afford to make a lot of expensive mistakes. Some new recruiters see an opportunity to 'sell people' but that's not how we want to approach it," said David Musgrove, who has been an external recruiter in the games business for 13 years with International Search Partners.

"We see ourselves as 'information brokers' and aim not to replace internal recruiting but to help both companies and employees find the best match for each other. Internal recruiters may be looking only for a certain very specific position, and if a candidate doesn't fit the profile exactly their application may simply get dumped, whereas an external recruiter may find a match that is actually more suitable for both the candidate and the employer."

Musgrove emphasized that the aim of PEER is not to establish game worker unions:

"I don't think unions are the proper solution for this industry. The solution is to continue to offer the benefits of a free marketplace to candidates in the industry. If employees are allowed free reign to offer their services and given free access to information about compensation and benefits being offered by game development companies, they can take advantage of better opportunities. One way to provide that information is through external recruiting."

Can a worker's organization create change without the negative stigma of being called a union? It has worked in other industries, such as sports, where some "player organizations" (such as the NHL's) act as unions in everything but name. However, unlike professional athletes, game developer salaries have not kept pace with the growth of the industry. The ironic thing is that EA was originally founded as a haven for developers from other companies, with the goal of promoting key devs as if they were sports or music superstars. Now the company finds itself as the poster child of an industry desperate for change. However, with game development costs skyrocketing and revenues somewhat weak, it is likely to be a long and difficult struggle.